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IE 8 on Windows 7 - Will not start until clicked about 5 times

Question

Ok, I am putting this one in Windows 7 because I have only seen the issue with this browser on this platform. What happens is this:

On Windows 7 RTM with all patches applied (at this moment)...

1) Click on IE icon on the start menu. It pops into the taskbar and then stays shaded for about 5 seconds and then is no longer shaded but closes out. The main program window never opens or shows up.2) Do this about 4 more times and it usually opens up and stays open.

Now, when troubleshooting this I used process explorer to view what is happening. Each time I click on the program icon I get two iexplore.exe processes that open up, stay running for a couple of seconds and then one goes orange-ish, then red then they both turn red and disappear.

Has anybody run into this symptom before? I am about ready to wipe my laptop and start from scratch again but I really would rather not.

The annoying thing is that this problem is VERY repeatable. Happens almost every single time. I have tried to troubleshoot it by opening IE in the "No Addin" mode and it does exactly the same thing. Driving me nuckinfutz.
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IE8 has several problems, the starting diffeculty you mention happens to me also. Frequently a messege will appear stating "internet explorer has stoped working". If I click the x it goes away and I can continue. During a download if I exit internet explorer it crashes and loses the download so I have to keep the parent page open untill it completes. Very poor performance overall for IE8 on windows 7 although I am very pleased with IE8 on windows XP.

Sorry, I got frustrated at not having a web browser and since I had already gone through the trouble of creating an autoattend.xml file I went ahead and whiped it out. One thing I had not thought of is we have some software we use here at our company called PureWire Remote and it proxies our internet connections. Its not compatible with windows 7 yet, but I am note sure if that was causing the problem. Since I have reloaded I have none of the issues I had before.

In regards to your post Nicholas, I thought that unticking that feature didn't actually remove IE, just removed it from view on the OS? Its still deeply imbedded in the OS correct?Anything worth doing is worth doing right.
Don't forget to vote!!!

Sorry, I got frustrated at not having a web browser and since I had already gone through the trouble of creating an autoattend.xml file I went ahead and whiped it out. One thing I had not thought of is we have some software we use here at our company called PureWire Remote and it proxies our internet connections. Its not compatible with windows 7 yet, but I am note sure if that was causing the problem. Since I have reloaded I have none of the issues I had before.

Hi TJ

I'm glad you were able to resolve the issues, even though it took a reinstall.

In regards to your post Nicholas, I thought that unticking that feature didn't actually remove IE, just removed it from view on the OS? Its still deeply imbedded in the OS correct?

Here is how the Turn Windows features on or off works in Windows 7.

All of the files that make up the entire installation for Windows 7 are contained in the C:\Windows\Winsxs folder. This is why this folder will be close to the same size as the installation media when Windows 7 is first installed.

When you select to install a default program, such as IE8, from the Turn Windows features on or off component, Windows will create the C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer folder. It will then create Hard Links to all of the files for IE8 from their locations in the Winsxs folder and place them in the Internet Explorer folder. It also creates all of the associated Registry Keys and Shortcuts that are required.

When you uninstall IE8 using the Turn Windows features on or off, all of the Hard Links, Registry entries, and shortcuts are removed. The files for that program remain in the Winsxs folder.

Because those files remain available in the Winsxs folder, some people will say that it is really not uninstalled.

Like Nicholas said, uninstalling and reinstalling IE8 can have the effect of 'refreshing' the installation since all of the Hard Links, Registry entries, and shortcuts are recreated.

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